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Marveling at nice Taiwan Teens are.
A few days ago I introduced you to Timmy. He was the GREAT kid I met in Starbucks. On Saturday Timmy introduced me to some of his friends. We hung out during the day. We hung out during the day taking turns learning.
It was a good day! I'll get there names up tomorrow. Starbucks internet crashed on me while doing this and well lets say I'm frustrated right now.
These are GREAT kids.
From left to right we have Vicki, Paul, Timmy, and me. In the back is Nalin and Alan.
Standing outside a McDonalds is Me and Alan. I have to tell you here that I had my first "unusual" food experience during my time with them, more specifically while sitting next to Alan at lunch. We were sitting having some sort of noodles, I just ordered off the picture. When Alan leans over and says, "Do you know what the meat is in the middle?" I honestly had not thought about it until that point. He starts to tell me and IMMEDIATELY shush him. On this little adventure of mine, I'm taking a U.S. Military approach; Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I liked it well enough, don't spoil it. (I did ask later, when I thought I was ready, what it was. Pig lungs. With a little spicy sauce it was pretty good. There wasn't a lot of meat in it so what the big deal. I liked it just fine.
Here again we have Paul, Vicki and Timmy in front, with Nalin and me in the back. During our cultural/language exchange for the day we went shopping at Sogo's. (I have to go back and video take the clock and post it. It was, say it with me "AWESOME"!.) Sogo's is what I would call a High End Macy's or Kohls. It is 11 stories!! We got on an Elevator that had a glass view to the outside. They were so nice to stand in front of it so I didn't faint. (People who know me, know I have this thing about heights. I'm better, but 11 stories is frickin' high! So not awesome.) At Sogo's we shopped for a topper for my bed. And we went to the arcade. I played a Teiko drums game. It was cool. So no pics. Next time I promise. We also went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I liked it OK, but the themes were too deep for us to try to discuss. That would be a tough movie many American high schoolers to discuss.
After the movie Vicki, Nalin and Paul needed to go home. So it was down to me, Timmy and Alan. We just walked around looking for a place I could rent movies and eventually ended back at Starbucks. The day had gone full circle. Timmy took great care of his new friend in me and of his old friends. I am thankful for the day with them. It was extra special. I hope that I was of some help with their English. I know I picked up a little Chinese. They all were eager to help me and gentle. Chinese is hard folks! Some of the sounds are so similar and we don't have some of these sounds in English if you've never seen a Chinese movie or had the pleasure of listening to a conversation.
Chinese is a very pretty language. The more I hear it, the more I want to learn it. And with a little help from my friends, I'm confident I will.
4 comments:
Wow Darryl, looks like you are having a ton of fun and adjusting pretty quickly to your new environment. Have you danced yet? lol :)
Hi Chino, It's interesting timing that I would read this on a day when I felt like a total "alien" here in Taiwan.
By and large I am doing ok with adjusting, but it I do get terribly lonely. Today is one of those days.
I can understand how you feel. Do you use skype or any other IM resource? You could stay connected that way.
At the moment, I do not have an A.R.C. card. That's the Taiwan equivalent to a U.S. Green Card. Without it I cannot get cable, internet, a phone, etc. That's why I hang out at Starbucks. Thus, I can't get use skype just yet. I do get my card this Wednesday!!
That will help a lot.
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